Life Is Such A Sweet Insanity.

Ohio., originally uploaded by iMachias.

Today has been all about driving. Earl and I left St. Louis at 10 a.m. CDT, drove through downtown and then it became all about Interstate 70 as we crossed Illinois, Indiana and half of Ohio before turning north along Interstate 71. After 9 1/2 hours of driving, we have settled on Cleveland for our stay for the night. We have about six hours of driving left. We should be home at a decent time tomorrow.

My mind wandered a bit as we drove merrily along and I have to say that I’m the most relaxed I’ve been in a very long time. It’s a great feeling.

Earl and I just had dinner at the bar in the lobby, we might go out for a drink before calling it a night.

Earl and I are packing up our little one week home here in St. Louis and getting ready to head back east. We have a long drive ahead of us and who knows what adventure we’ll find on the road. We are always looking for adventure.

Today is my sister’s birthday. She has been and always will be one of my best friends. I am proud to be her big brother. To celebrate I share a picture from our childhood days. It’s one of my favorites of us.

Earl and I went to the Missouri Botanical Gardens for most of the day today. We took a ton of pictures, in fact Earl took so many that he drained the battery on his camera, and I’m going to try to post them on Flickr¹ when I get a few moments.

Instead of just snapping photos randomly and hoping for something amazing, I concentrated on what I was trying to capture and how I wanted it to look in a photo that will be around forever. This dragonfly photo is an example of me messing around in this manner. I already know a number of ways I could have improved this photo (especially if I was carrying a camera with a viewfinder) but I thought it was a pretty good start.

A dragonfly at the Missouri Botanical Gardens. July 17 ’09.

We never made it to Branson, Mo. contrary to the suggestion to do so from our friend Shirley; when we went to dinner with Leigh last night she told us that Branson isn’t the most gay-friendly place in the world, so we decided to skip it, what with us being gay and all.

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that during a drive from Toronto to the 1000 Islands (on my way home) along Southern Ontario that I had some sort of settling of the way I feel about things, almost like a reboot of attitude. When I’m driving is when I do my best thinking. I’m now realizing that this reboot was only partially complete, as the rest of this nebulous, indescribable alignment of my outlook on life has finally clicked into place during this vacation.

And we still have two days of driving left to get home!

J.P. and Earl, still very happy after all these years. July 17 ’09.

¹ I actually ended up posting the photos on my MobileMe account. You can take a peek at them here. These are the photos that Earl and I both took.

St. Louis Zoo., originally uploaded by iMachias.

Today Earl and I went to the St. Louis Zoo. The weather was perfect and the zoo is quite nice. I have been to zoos that are kind of dingy and I’ve been to zoos that have been spectacular. I would say this rates on the higher end. The animals look happy, their environment is reasonable, there seemed to be ample opportunities for education and all in all I would rate the experience and 8 out of 10. I highly recommend visiting the zoo when you’re in St. Louis.

I took a TON of pictures at the zoo and posted them on my Flickr account.

For dinner we met up with Earl’s friend Leigh. They haven’t seen each other in 14 years or so and she is from the BJP era so it was really nice to meet her. We had a great time at dinner at an Irish pub called McGurk’s. Great food and great conversation.

Earl and I are feeling adventurous this evening, we might go out for a night on the town and see what a Thursday night is all about in these parts.

165.365, originally uploaded by iMachias.

Today was a busy day and quite frankly I’m heading to bed. We did many things today, including shopping at the St. Louis Galleria. I took the opportunity to snap a photo using one of the display MacBook Pros at the Apple Store.

164A.365, originally uploaded by iMachias.

Well, sort of tailgating. Earl and I went downtown for the MLB All Star Game 2009 festivities tonight. The streets were jammed with baseball fans and their fans. We enjoyed some food, a few drinks and doing the people watching. We found a good spot on a pedestrian bridge to watch it all.

After folks starting heading into the stadium or drifting off to their own parties we made our way to Union Station and the Hard Rock Café where we watched the pre-game stuff. Sheryl Crow’s rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner” was great and was punctuated by a hush over the restaurant as she sang. The hush was followed by a loud rumble; it was then that I realized that the Stealth B-2 Bomber that was passing over the baseball game was also passing over the restaurant; half the patrons ran out to see it. It was an awesome sight.

We watched a little bit of the game before hopping on the MetroLink and heading back to the hotel. We did a LOT of walking today. I think we are going to call it an early night.

Earl and I are kicking back on the pace today and sort of just exploring St. Louis in a non-chalant way. Today we started the day at the Sciencenter.

Water Exhibit / Landscaping at the entrance to the St. Louis Sciencenter

There are many exhibits, displays and opportunities for interaction so that folks, especially young folks, can learn all sorts of things about our world. We decided to watch the feature presentation in the OmniMax theatre: Grand Canyon Adventure: River At Risk. It was my first time in an OmniMax theatre and I must say that the experience is well worth the admission. At times your senses can get overwhelmed but a quick glance away from the action and you’re fine.

Much like Animal Kingdom or Epicot at Walt Disney World, our visit to the Sciencenter got me thinking about what we can do back home to give back to Mother Earth. Earl and I decided to replace all of our toilets (which need replacing anyway) with more water conservation models and to change the shower heads as well. We already use a front loading washing machine, which uses considerably less water than a top loader, so we are already on the right track.

After the Sciencenter we stopped at the local Trader Joe’s to stock the hotel suite with a few healthy snacks and some breakfast goods. We are now revving up to hop back on the MetroLink and head into the city to continue the adventure.

Intermission at The MUNY., originally uploaded by iMachias.

The celebrities were out in celebration of my birthday as Earl took me to see “Godspell” at The MUNY at Forest Park. That’s right, real live celebrities smiled as they walked by; it was none other than Georgia Engel (most famous for playing Ted Baxter’s wife, Georgette, on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”) herself. Some claim she was making her way to rehearsals for her appearance in “The Music Man”, but I really think she was there to wish me a happy birthday with her trademark wide smile. Our eyes met. She didn’t say the words “Happy Birthday” but the spirit was certainly present.

Anyways, Earl took me to see “Godspell”. One of my favourite musicals, “Godspell” is a fun show to watch because the music is groovy in an early 70s way (and now with a 21st century twist) and because the script is so open to interpretation each production is unique. This show was no different; it was the first time I had seen the musical take place on a playground. Interestingly enough, the order of musical numbers was rearranged significantly. The instrumentation and vocals were pretty true to the early 1970s version of the movie, though there was a touch of American Idol going on with some of the solos, but the reordering of the numbers brought a different meaning to “A Beautiful City” in particular, as that was used to close the show instead of the reprise of “Prepare Ye” and “Day By Day”.

I have to admit that I was completely entranced with the two individuals providing the sign-language of the show. They worked together and kept within the emotion and timbre of each scene. I have seen many sign language interpreters do a rather robotic translation of their given task, these two individuals were animated to the point of being in sync with the performers but not outdoing them. I was pleased to see the cast recognise them during curtain calls.

One thing that bothered me about the show is the need for a verbal and written announcement to remain seated until curtain calls have been completed. It irks me that some folks bolt out of the auditorium during the last number or closing monologue of a show or even during the curtain calls. If you can’t find it in yourself to applaud for a few moments during curtain calls, recognising the talent for their hard work, no matter how deserved, then quite frankly you should buy the cast album and enjoy the show from your car stereo because that’s apparently where you’re all fired up to go to.

The MUNY is a wonderful outdoor theatre that seats 11,000 or so. According to tonight’s program, Mary Wickes loved it there because it’s romantic and we all love Mary Wickes so there you go.

After the theatre we made our way to the local Cheesecake Factory for cheesecake before calling it a night. This has been a really special birthday for me. I have been buried in well wishes from many people today (and thank you everyone!).

I remarked to Earl tonight that I am truly blessed. There are many people that make my life as great as it is and I wouldn’t trade one moment of it for anything else.

Skyward., originally uploaded by iMachias.

Today is our first full day in St. Louis, so naturally we set out to see the the Gateway Arch.

It is nothing short of impressive.

We rode in on the MetroLink because one should always strive to take mass transit/light rail whenever possible. We arrived at the Gateway Arch around 11:00 a.m. The lines were short and by 11:15 we were boarding the south tram for our ride to the top. When we purchased our tickets the cashier asked if we were claustrophobic and of course neither of us are. When we were paying I noticed several people gathered around this display of a pod-like thing. I didn’t think much of it until it was time to board the tram.

Five people squeeze into this pod-like thing. It’s so small in there that if you’re over 6’1″ or so, you have to stoop forward whilst you’re sitting so you can enjoy the four minute trek to the top of the Arch.

I have to admit that I would have been feeling slightly freaky if it hadn’t been for the small window in the door that allowed one to look out at the innards of Arch as we made our way to the top. Once at the top we were given the opportunity to look out the small windows on either side. I took a bunch of photos, which you can see here.

After our descent to the ground (a three minute ride on the tram) we watched a 30 minute movie on the building of the Gateway Arch (the engineer in me is wicked impressed) and then we walked around Downtown St. Louis for a bit, joining in on the festive atmosphere of tomorrow’s All-Star Game.

We are now relaxing for a bit at the hotel before heading back out for the evening. Earl is taking me to see “Godspell” at the MUNY at Forest Park tonight,

We are definitely off to a great start.

Oh, by the way, I turn 41 today.

So today Earl and I spent the day driving to the destination that we had planned on going to all along. We faked it a little bit by saying that we had to make a choice here …

Interstate 80 west of Joliet, Illinois.

… but in reality I knew to take I-55 South toward St. Louis. We are at the new Homewood Suites for the next six nights. Earl got us a good deal.

We left Grand Rapids, Mich. around 9:30 Eastern and quickly found ourselves down at the Indiana border at lunch time. However, I had forgotten about the whole time change thing so it was more like brunch time since we lost an hour (however, my body is curiously VERY happy to be in the Central Time Zone) but nevertheless we had an early lunch at a chain place called Culver’s. Judging by the amount of cheese available on the food I’m guessing that Culver’s is based in Wisconsin, but that’s just an educated guess.

After Culver’s we trekked through the underside of greater Chicago along Interstate 80 and made our way to Interstate 55 where we headed south. This was the first time that either of us had been through Central Illinois; we both enjoyed the scenery and the drive. Illinois DOT has some nice rest areas; we posed in the picnic area at the Funk’s Grove Rest Area.

Bears In The Woods at Funk’s Grove on Interstate 55.

We had beautiful weather until we got just north of East St. Louis, where the sky opened up with some pretty impressive rain. Nevertheless we made our way through St. Louis to a brand new Homewood Suites (I believe we are the first ones to ever stay in the room we are in) across from the St. Louis Galleria. There’s an impressive shopping area called The Boulevard; we are just back from dinner at the PF Chang’s there.

We have a rough idea of what we are doing this week but the most important thing we are doing is spending time together relaxing. Earl and I have a beautiful life together and it’s vacations like these, which are an amazing thing in their own right, that makes every other moment at home with all that we do just as special.

Tonight is my last night of officially being 40 years old. It is tonight that I can say that I am truly a very happy man.

I’ll be updating my Twitter, Facebook and Flickr accounts all week during our adventures here in Missouri.